Recently, there has been an avalanche of news articles about spikes in mental illness on campus. Seminal works like Margaret Price's Mad at School (2011) have begun to expose the ableism inherent in the university and prompted more open discussion surrounding the politics of disclosure.

As interest in this crucial topic grows, we are seeking out academics with psychiatric disorders and disabilities to contribute chapters to an essay collection on Mad Scholars, showcasing personal perspectives and professional experiences from across disciplines and career stages.

Privilege comes in many forms whether race, class, gender, or education. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 84% of full time faculty are white, 25% of those professors are women. With these overarching statistics nationally, at many institutions, classes that focus on African American or Latinx literature are taught largely, if not completely, by faculty who are not from that racial or cultural demographic. When white faculty teach these courses, they may need to confront their own privilege and cultural “blind spots.” Proposed case study presentations can address teaching either African American or Latinx texts.

From kingdoms staking claims on opposing riverbanks to landowners arguing over a thorny hedge, transitional environments have long formed the foundations for political and social boundaries. Such material anchors in turn may be claimed to demonstrate the natural legitimacy of these borders and the institutions they define. Yet medieval literature, art, and popular culture overflows with depictions of such ecotones – water to land, mountain to plain, forest to field – that test both the permanence and permeability of the categories and divisions humans impose on their surroundings (and themselves).